Ibadan Journal of the Social Sciences
Volume 3, No. 2, 2005
Pages 51-66
DOI: 10.36108/ijss/5002.30.0250
The International Political Economy of Oil and its Implications for the Niger Delta Crisis
Abdul-Ganiyu Garba
Department of Economics, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria
Abstract
The paper analyzes the international political economy of oil and deduces implications for the Niger Delta crisis. The economic analysis focuses 0n the essential nature of oil, key players, and the organization of the global industry while the analysis of the international politics of oil focuses Oil the institutions, incentives, and the dynamic games of oil. The main conclusions are that the international political economy of oil is willfully designed by established global players to guarantee a stable outflow of cheap oil to fuel a wide range of economic, social. and political activities ill rich countries. Therefore, the contest for control over the economic rents from oil cannot be domesticated and in the absence of a strong and developmental state, the social costs for oil communities would tend to grow beyond the thresholds for open conflict, yet open conflicts will not achieve the desires of the population in the Niger Delta.